“I can’t dare to feel hopeful,” she observed gloomily, when the door had been closed and they were once more alone.  “We trusted you before, we believed that everything would be well.  You were brutal to us both—­to me as well as to my uncle.”

“I made no promises,” he reminded her.  “I broke no ties.  I was a people’s man; I still am.  I took the course I thought best.  I thought I saw a way to real freedom.”

“It was Maxendorf!” she exclaimed, under her breath.

He nodded.

“Maxendorf was too clever for me,” he confessed.  “Perhaps, just at this moment, he is a little sorry for it.”

“What do you mean?” she asked hastily.

Maraton shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh, he’s alive—­only just, though!  I shook the life nearly out of him.  He knows that if we fail within these next twenty-four hours, your uncle and I, I am going to take what’s left.  I promised him that.”

Her eyes glowed.

“You are a strange person,” she declared.  “How did you come to see the truth—­to know that you had been misled by Maxendorf?”

“It was Selingman who told me,” he explained.  “Selingman, too, was deceived, but Selingman was nearer to him.  He discovered the truth and he came to me.  It was a matter of two hours ago.  I made my way first to Maxendorf.  I remembered my promise.  I waited about in the corridors outside his room until I saw an opportunity.  Then I slipped in and took him by the throat.  Oh, he’s alive, but not very much alive to-night!”

“Tell me about your wonderful journey north?” she begged.

He shook his head.

“Just at present it is like a nightmare,” he replied.  “We went from place to place and I preached the new salvation.  I told them to trust in me and I would lead them to the light.  I believed it.  Though the way I knew must be strewn with difficulties, though there were great risks and much suffering, I believed it.  I saw the dawn of the millennium.  I made them believe that I saw it.  They placed their trust in me.  I have led them to the brink of God knows what!”

“You have led them to the brink of war,” she said gravely.  “We wait for its declaration every hour, my uncle and I. They know our plight.  They are waiting for the exactly correct minute.”

“They may wait a day too long,” Maraton muttered.  “For myself, I believe that they have already waited a day too long.  Maxendorf was too certain.  He never dreamed that I might learn the truth.  Listen!”

A car stopped outside.  They heard the sound of footsteps in the hall, the door was quickly opened.  Mr. Foley stood there.  He was looking very grave and white, but his eyes flashed at the sight of Maraton.

“You!” he exclaimed.

He gave his coat and hat to the servant; then he closed the door behind him.  He remained standing—­he offered no form of greeting to his unexpected visitor.